Refugio looks to get defensive against Poth

Refugio's John Wesley Shipp attempts to take down Three Rivers' Kaleb Gee during the second quarter of Thursday night's Class 2A Division II area playoff game in Sinton. ANGELI WRIGHT/AWRIGHT@VICAD.COM

REFUGIO BOBCATS VS. POTH PIRATES

Class 2A, Division II Regional Playoff

7:30 p.m. Friday, Memorial Stadium, Victoria

REFUGIO - Linebacker Jake Heryford is fairly certain what Poth's offensive game plan will be against Refugio.

"I'm expecting them to come out and try to run it down our throat," Heryford said.

Three Rivers was able to move the ball on the ground against the Bobcats (11-0) in their Class 2A, Division II area playoff game.

Heryford figures the Pirates (11-0) will try to do the same in their regional playoff game on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium in Victoria.

"I think the main thing is we need to control the line of scrimmage," Heryford said. "We've got to find a way to control the line of scrimmage. If you don't do that, even when you stop them it's for a couple of yards."

Three Rivers ran 75 offensive plays against Refugio, only four of which were passes.

The Bulldogs rushed for 340 yards and had a time of possession advantage of 36:47 to 11:13, including a 19:18 to 4:42 edge in the second half.

"Our defense was on the field for 70-something plays and they were exhausted," said Refugio head coach Jason Herring. "We've got to do a better job of not letting teams keep the ball from us."

Refugio scored on eight of its nine possessions to win 56-25, but the defense was less than satisfied.

"We've got to get in the way more," said Refugio defensive coordinator Steve Heryford. "We didn't give up the big play, but we got driven on and let them control the game and I think that's coach Herring's worst nightmare is somebody playing keep away."

Three Rivers had only four runs for 10 yards or more, but gained positive yardage on all but five runs and had 25 first downs.

"We've got to each take care of our gaps," Jake Heryford said. "I felt like the whole game they controlled the line of scrimmage and that's why they had so much success."

Poth uses a different alignment, but was able to control the ball in its 33-28 area win over Schulenburg.

"My ego's bruised a little bit, but I'm not as concerned because they're not going to line up in the slot-T," Steve Heryford said. "We've got to get stops. One of those things is we've got to get better on first down."

Refugio's struggles against Three Rivers has overshadowed the performance of a defense, which yielded an average of 173.5 yards and 6.7 points per game during the regular season.

"I sent in my defensive stats and they look awesome," Steve Heryford said. "We were on the field for over 70 plays so I've got kids with over 20 tackles. That's because we really didn't do our job. Our job is three and outs or to get turnovers. That's something we've got to get better at.

"All you remember is last week," he added. "We have this impression we're not very good when for 10 weeks all we gave up was six points a game. We're going to get back to doing the things we did in the regular season."